“Yeah. If you guys don’t mind. You promised to tell us everything you found out.” Maria got a suspicious look on her face, and turned to Michael. “If I find out you know where she is and didn’t tell me…”

Michael put both hands up between himself and Maria and appealed to Max. “Hey protect me. She’s going to use her death ray eyes on me.” Then he reached out and snagged Maria into his lap. She didn’t put up much of a fight, but she did need reassuring that they didn’t know more than she did. Where Liz was concerned, Maria wasn’t reasonable.

Max looked at Maria and Alex very seriously. “We know how close you both are to Liz. If we knew where she was, we would have told you. You know that don’t you?” At their nods, he continued. “I told you that Liz wouldn’t come back, or let us know where she was, until we could figure out how to keep Tess here. Well, what we want to do will not be easy on you. On any of us. But we think the best way to tell what happened is to show exactly what Liz knows and how she felt. We intend to connect all of us and share the memory of our connection with Liz.”

Maria had her mouth open. “Can you do that? I mean great! But will we, you know, have to all go to sleep or something? Oh! Will we get to see that dream place?”

“Will it hurt?” Alex asked. “I mean I think that’s relevant.” He said defensibly, when Isabel looked at him.

“Why Tess?” Maria demanded. “She doesn’t miss Liz. Doesn’t even like her. Why do we have to include her?”

Michael gave a disgusted snort. “Tess is the only one that really has to see and feel this connection. So if you and Alex don’t want to do this…”

“Michael! If you think for one minute you can keep us out of this…”

“Children! Children!” Isabel called. “Let’s just wait for Tess and Kyle and see if this works. With all of us working together, we could get Tess off her ‘Max only’ track and start her looking around for other options.”

“You don’t have to sleep. This isn’t dream walking. It’s connecting, like Liz and I…” Max looked at the floor and swallowed. “You aren’t going to like this. I don’t like going through it again. Izzy doesn’t. But we owe it to Liz to try this, and we owe it to you to share it.”

Maria looked at Max and swallowed. For once she didn’t have a word to say. There was thoughtful silence as everyone waited.

When they did arrive, Kyle looked at the serious faces and almost left again. Max herded them in and Tess tossed her hair back and looked around defiantly. “So, what’s with all the heavy drama?”

***

Elsie’s Stop ‘N’ Place, Room six:

Jarod tried to concentrate on his notes, see if he could glean anything more out of the internet info and news clips he had gathered. Luke was pacing the floor and muttering to himself. Jarod found himself reading the same page over and over.

“Luke,” He said kindly, “Why don’t you make a choice. You can settle down and wait for morning, or you can go to Liz’s room and ask her about what you saw.”

This perfectly reasonable advice was met with less than perfect acceptance. “How can I go up to a strange girl and say, ‘So, can you tell me where I might find the girl inside your head?’ And of course she won’t ask me how I know what’s inside her head. Or what my interest might be. And of course I can just answer, ‘Oh, she is the girl I’m destined to spend the rest of my life with. By the way do you know her name?’ Yeah that will be great!”

Jarod shrugged and popped a Pez into his mouth. With his hands poised over his keyboard, he said, “If I were you, I’d think up a convincing cover story and swear her to secrecy.” At Luke’s look of exasperation, he continued. “Remember the place I told you about? The one I escaped from? They had a big interest in ESP. All kinds. And they were as determined to keep a hold on those with special talents, as they were to keep me. I escaped. Maybe you did too. From someone who wants to use your gifts.” He smiled at the silence behind him. Now the kid was thinking. ‘And now I can get back to work.’

Luke started pacing again, then sat down and began working out what he would say to Liz. She held the clue to his future and he must, he would, find a way to get that clue.